Lucie
Lamberts latest achievement is the publication of Au cur
du bois, a collection of eleven short poems by Jacques Brault
and eleven poems by E.D. Blodgett, inspired by eleven woodcuts by
the artist. The prints show quivering bouquets of boughs and branches
that lead the eye into tall forests or into copses, undergrowth, tangles
of varying degrees of complexity and ramification, with flame-like
and wave-like textures. Through this abstract foliage, like
liquid hair, shimmers a flower sun that seems to illuminate
these enchanted forests from within.

These
images invite us to go straight into the heart of the wood, into the
very substance of the material carved by the artist. Our journey is
intensified by the evocative power of the poems inspired by the prints,
poems that paint a landscape of trees and forests, but also of birth
and life, in the depth of the shade, before an earlier world that
has now disappeared. Each of the poets in turn brings us into the
breath of the wind in the pastures, into the heart of the night, the
heart of the rain, bidding us to traverse uncertain regions between
time and space. The epigraphs of Chrétien de Troyes and Dante
have already shown us the path that stretches out before our eyes:
Night and the forest bring to him / Great pain, but more pain
/ Than night and forest brings the rain. And Dante: So
far had my slow steps now brought / Me into that ancient wood that
I could not / Discern the entrance to it that I sought. It is
this twofold plan that is opened out through the series of prints
and the words of the two poets, animated by the same breath, moving
to a similar rhythm.

Published
in an edition of forty copies, this eleventh artists book by
Lucie Lambert is printed on Japanese obonai paper. The poems were
set by hand in 18-point Nicolas Cochin type and printed by Martin
Dufour. In the deluxe copies, the box is made of leather and adorned
with a piece of exotic wood; in the other copies, it is made of Japanese
fabric. Both were designed and constructed by Pierre Ouvrard, and
the deluxe copies are secured with a metal tool forged by Ms. Lambert
who is also a jeweller. As precious as the works that came before
it, Au cur du bois is the result of meticulous collaboration,
and even more importantly, it is the fruit of a passion that is intimately
shared by all who worked on it. As with most of her earlier books,
the primary inspiration remains a strong sense of closeness to nature
(bestiaries, fruit, water, air, clouds, wood ), taking shape
before our eyes in printed and written images born out of the same
creative impulse.